Sex Ed for your kids - the revised edition (Part 2)

Back in June, we did a post on the revised Grade 7 Fully Alive program's treatment on homosexuality. Specifically, we pointed out how it bore no resemblance to Catholic teaching on the topic. Well the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario (ACBO) have just released the revised edition of the Grade 8 Fully Alive program. On the first page of this document we read the following:

"The subject of sexual orientation and homosexuality was introduced in Grade 7. In Grade 8, some of this information is reviewed and the moral teaching of our Church on homosexuality is presented."

As a Catholic parent, you're probably thinking this is great. Finally, the Church's teaching on homosexuality is going to be presented to our kids. Better late than never, right? So this is what we get on page 10 and 11:

"A homosexual orientation is an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction to people of the same sex. All people, whether homosexual or heterosexual in orientation, are called by God to be chaste and to honour the gift of sexuality."

The problem with the above line is that our students aren't taught what chastity is and to frame sexuality exclusively as a gift can lead our children to think that one can do what they want with it -- it's a gift, remember. To see the fruits of this line of thinking, one can look no further than a student trustee from Toronto who invoked the "giftedness of sexuality" in her defense of gay clubs in our Catholic schools.

The document gets worse from here on in. On page 14 we get a repeat of the Grade seven nonsense about the normality of homosexual inclinations followed by the following statement:

"Some young adolescents tend to be quite intolerant in their attitudes toward those who are homosexual. In part this is a result of their stage of development with its confusions and uncertainties about sexuality. But their attitudes are often confirmed and strengthened by adults who see only the sexual orientation, and not the person. An important message that young people need to hear at home is that all people have a fundamental dignity and are deserving of respect."

And that's it. That's all our kids will be hearing on the topic. Homosexual inclinations (i.e. crushes) are normal and the implication that we should refrain from correcting those that have embraced the homosexual lifestyle because that would be disrespectful and an attack on their fundamental dignity. There is nothing in the document that makes a distinction between one's inclinations and one's actions - the hallmark of Catholic teaching on the topic. The question every Catholic parent should be asking themselves is why they didn't present the Church's teaching on homosexuality in its entirety. To think it was an accident would be naive. To quote the recently released CCCB document on same-sex attractions:

"Avoidance of difficult questions or watering down the Church’s teaching is always a disservice. Such attitudes could lead young people into grave moral danger.“ Moral conscience requires that, in every occasion, Christians give witness to the whole moral truth, which is contradicted both by approval of homosexual acts and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons.”"

Parents, do your duty and make sure your kids are removed from these classes and write to your bishops about your concerns. Bishops of Ontario, stop abdicating your responsibility and revise this program to reflect the Church's teaching on sexuality and stop putting our children “into grave moral danger”.

Sex Ed for your kids - the revised edition

Fully Alive is the Family Life Education program sponsored by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario (ACBO). Unfortunately, this program, in particular the sections on sexuality, fail to pass along an authentic Catholic view of this topic.

For those of you interested in an excellent summary of the problems with Fully Alive, I invite you to read the following "Brief on Fully Alive" written by the Family Association for Catholic Education.

In the spring of 2006, the ACBO decided to proceed with the development of a 2nd edition of Fully Alive. By the end of 2010, the revised editions of grades one to seven were published, and the family editions (there are also student and teacher editions) were made available on the ACBO website (http://acbo.on.ca/englishweb/fullyalive.htm). Grade 8 of the revised program is to be published this summer.

Give the recent battles over the government's Equity Strategy, I was curious to see how the recently revised grade 6 section approached homosexuality. Grade 6 is the first time this topic is addressed in the program. The following is the relevant excerpt:

It is also normal during adolescence for both males and females to have very strong feelings for people of the same sex. This might be an older student or a teacher whom they admire. Young people may be concerned that this means they are homosexual, but this is not something that they are likely to talk about with anyone. It is helpful if parents have talked about homosexuality, and mentioned the concerns that young people sometimes have and how normal adolescent “crushes” are.

The Catholic Church teaches that same-sex attractions are disordered. Why do they want to tell kids that same-sex attractions are normal? Why not tell them something that reflects the Church's teaching on homosexuality? Why not give our kids real food like this quote from Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz:

Those who experience same-sex attractions must “resist that inclination,” he said. “There are people who are inclined to start fires, or to kill people, or to rob or something, and they can’t give into their inclinations. They have to struggle against them and restrain them.”

Will we ever see something like that in the Fully Alive program? Not with the people that are writing this stuff right now. Parents, do your duty and make sure your kids are removed from these classes. Bishops, stop abdicating your responsibility and revise this program to reflect the faith you have vowed to defend and teach.